The aspirational vs motivated user. It's like people being told they need to go to the gym by the sales person vs the person who gets up at 6am to just work out.
So you didn't read the article and now you're just throwing out statements without validation? Great, if JPMorgan is selling your data then that's their decision and that's beyond the scope of this convo. We work with partners (Plaid, Snaptrade) who explicitly state that they DO NOT sell user data, and we maintain the same principles:
Here is the quote if you're too lazy to read this one too:
Does Plaid sell my financial data for advertising or marketing purposes?
No, we do not sell your financial data to third parties for marketing or advertising purposes.
Plaid only shares your data to power the services and products that you choose or to protect you and the Plaid network from fraud.
Plaid was founded on the principle that you have a right to your financial information and we are focused on providing products that allow you to safely and conveniently access your data and harness the power of Plaid’s secure financial network.
As Plaid develops more products and services, you may ask Plaid to share your information in ways that benefit you and that you control.
I really don't think you read this article beyond the headline because that's not what it's about or implying...literally in the slightest.
That article is about JPMorgan being able to charge Plaid or other providers for the middleman access. They used to be operating almost for free, now Plaid has to pay for access the same way companies like mine pay Plaid.
That's kind of just a brag about being wealthy though, isn't it? For many people who are trying to get escape velocity to being financially secure, tracking spending + investments is a necessary reality.
No one is saying it's healthy but if you have debt, can't save or don't have investments on track to meet your future needs then what's more unhealthy, monitoring or lower living standards?
Did you find a suitable replacement? What do you use now? I'm interested to hear how big of an sticking point this still is with this a verbose range of options now.
You're correct here. The banks have limited who they are allowing into their systems more and more right now. We wanted to build direct partnerships with trading institutions to leverage their brokerages but they'd tell us to speak with their whitelisted partners like Plaid or a new (YC backed) incumbent, Snaptrade.
I'm a founder in this space (Fulfilled - posted above). Here's the reality:
You're right that incentives matter. But selling your data would be idiotic for us, same reason it would be for your bank in that trust is the entire business model.
If we want to monetize insights from aggregated data, we'd do it in-house and offer you better products. Example: Why sell your mortgage readiness data to some broker when we could source competitive mortgage offers and present them directly to you? Keep you in our ecosystem, add value to your experience, and build a revenue stream that doesn't destroy the core product.
The wealth space is crowded. Companies that burn user trust get exposed fast and die faster. The only sustainable path is treating your data like it belongs to you and not us. Any company here who doesn't get that is building on quicksand and I'd be very surprised to hear any of the larger players engaging in those practices but maybe I'm naive.
Either way, it's why we're a Fiduciary and that blankets the entire product suite.
A lot of it is going to be needs & vibes based. Some of them have more in-depth and niche features in certain areas, like transaction splitting or categorization and others are just simple and clean UI to go for ease of use.
We're entering the same market but with a tilt towards investment & actionable guidance. Same read-only capabilities on the account sync side (although our budgeting + spending side is still heavily in development) except we're an RIA that can provide professional advise (for free).
Hey, good question! We deliver holistic wealth management as a single integrated experience.
Most retail platforms are vertically segmented, separate tools & products for investing, budgeting, savings, etc.
Users have to figure out which product to use and when. Or worse, they get cross-sold products they dont need. If you sign up for betterment or wealthfront right now you're left guessing where to start and whats appropriate. We step in where a family office or high networth adviser would, with a fiduciary duty to put your needs first as a SEC Registered Investment Adviser.
Our implementation: We analyze your complete financial picture (via Plaid/Oauth integration), then via reasoning models and deterministic logic surface the right feature at the right time based on what's actually blocking your wealth growth. If debt is your biggest issue, we guide you there first, not because you selected "debt management" but because that's you need.
Investment recommendations, budgeting features, debt paydown strategies, they all work together as one cohesive plan, not separate products you have to stitch together yourself.
We're a SEC Registered Investment Advisor that combines financial planning with institutional style investment portfolios that are designed to achieve financial goals.
Highlights:
- Full money management platform at the core - expenses, budgeting, tracking across all your accounts. But instead of stopping there, we actually provide wealth building & financial planning tools.
- We model our investment portfolios using forward-looking institutional research at the asset class level and then recommend it to users as public ETFs that track the underlying index. This is extremely low cost for the client and allows us to model & manage custom portfolios unique to each goal that is created.
- No transfers needed, everything is GUIDED through your existing accounts via secure sync. We literally show you what to buy, when to buy it, how much, and (eventually) where to do it in your own brokerage/bank accounts. You stay in control, we just tell you the exact steps.
What's next:
- Building out "financial playbooks" next. Think step-by-step guided modules that walk you through achieving specific goals (building an emergency fund, buying a house, retirement planning, etc) with the investment strategy baked directly into it where appropriate. The idea is to combine the actual tactical planning actions (what accounts to open, important action dates, tax optimization moves) with the investment management, so it's a truly personalized experience.
Currently in open beta in the US. Any feedback is welcome!